Review | Anastasia Beverly Hills Glow Kits in Gleam, Sundipped and That Glow
Hello hello! Major apologies for being extra AWOL as of late, I’ve been on a two week trip to Pakistan, but more on that in another post. Welcome to a long awaited review which has been on my blogging to-do list for AGES and I’m kinda relieved I am finally sitting down to write it up! So I’m going to jump straight into it, although I will start by saying that I did not actually buy all three of these gorgeous glow kits and if you want to know how I managed to collect three of them then you can have a read of this post here. Anyways I’m NOT complaining because I love them, each and every one and before I getting into the details of it all – YES these three are totally worth the hype. I can’t speak for the others, because I’ve not tried them (but I DID just treat myself to the Nicole kit cause, well I don’t even need to explain myself there do I? Haha. These three are the first to come from ABH, and after sundipped they released moonbeam and sweets – both of which have a little less ‘everyday’ colours, for me personally but I’ve heard amazing things about them both! They then released ‘ultimate glow’, which has to be the only kit I heard bad reviews about, due to the pigmentation issues and high glitter content.
So starting with the basics that are consistent across the board – these all cost £39 each which might shock you a little, but bare in mind you get FOUR highlighters and they didn’t scrimp on the size either! Each pan of highlighter holds 7.4g, so you’re getting a whopping 29.6g of product for the near £40 price tag. Now if we compare that to another one of my favourite highlighters, the Laura Geller Gilded Honey which is £21 and you only get 4.5g of product! They are all removable pans in these three glow kits (although there are a few glow kits, which don’t have them). These have magnetic bases, so when travelling its super easy to remove your favourites in a Z palette – or even create your own custom palette if you have two of them! So all in all I think its a very fair price, especially since you get way more than 4 options per palette. I will often mix and match the shades, sometimes using a glow close to my skintone all over the cheek bones, and then a lighter brighter shade with a smaller brush. The packaging itself is great too, sturdy cardboard, with a strong magnet in the lid too. I also really appreciate how they don’t waste any space in the palette – is that not the most annoying thing, when they have double the amount of packaging you actually need?? 🙄
So if you read the above post, you will know that this is the palette I got for free (kinda) and one I had no intention of buying. It is also currently discontinued sadly, but I’m hoping that they randomly bring it back like they did with that glow. Upon first glance, you might think this palette is best for fair skin-tones, which is what I thought too. However Gleam is the actually the one I pick up joint most, for a day-to-day glow especially.
I think you’d love this if: you prefer a lowkey glow, you have ANY skin-tone (except perhaps very deep) and if you’re looking for a highlighter kit that is suitable mainly for a subtle glow. Although with a damp brush, you can get a real strobbed look with all of the kits – little tip 🤗.
These powders are not super creamy in texture, which I like because it means you can really build them up on the skin, making them versatileThey’re also not powdery either – again a big win, since when you tap your brush into the pan, lots of excess product isn’t brought to the surface and subsequently wasted. A win-win situation!
Going into each of these shades in detail:
Hard Candy: By far my least used shade from this quad, hard candy is a true pink highlighter and it works quite well as a blush topper! I find it most wearable when I mix it with the shade starburst and I find it easiest to use when I’m wearing a warmer shade of foundation as it blends in well. If you like a colourful highlight, you’ll like hard candy!
Mimosa: MY FAVE! Look at how beautifully warm and golden it is! Mimosa is a shade that when applied with just one layer, looks perfectly fine for day to day, but when layered up I can achieve that stunning brighter look, as you can see in the swatch. It’s also one of those stunning shades that on my olive skintone, is not an obvious swipe across my cheek. However as I turn my head it is more noticeable and I LOVE it. Especially when used with a damp brush. DAAAYUM.
Crushed Pearl: This is my second most used shade, and it is the lightest and brightest. I think the name is perfect, as it is almost like Anastasia literally crushed up some pearls and pressed it in the palette! I tent to pop this on the very top of my cheekbone for a super bright highlight, or I’ll use it on a thicker fan brush very lightly so it is distributed in a softer way. I prefer this when I’m not tanned or wearing a warmer foundation because it is more on the cool toned side of things.
Starburst: I know I just said C.P is my second most used shade, but starburst is coming in at a close second! It is one of the most wearable cooler toned highlighters I own. It is a slightly diluted silver, when compared to crushed pearl, but it is still pretty stark against my olive skintone. However with a soft brush starburst works very well. I love that there is no glitter in any of these pans, and it applies onto the skin so perfectly, with a small tap going a long way. If you have a light skintone and choose to pick up this palette I’m sure this one will become your go-to!
I think you’d love this if: You have a medium-deep skintone, since these shades are definitely stronger than those of the first two kits. Also if you don’t want too many golden shades, but you’re still looking for a mostly warm toned highlighting palette, then sundipped is your best bet.
And here are the three kits swatches side by side, with every single shade being different…even if some are very close! I hope this post helped you to figure out which one (two or three!) that you wanted, as you can see you don’t really need all three but I do use all of them and love them all for their own reasons. I’ve been asked so many times, which one I would recommend, so if you are olive toned, then I’d have to say that glow, because it is soooo wearable. However if you have deeper skintone, sundipped is the one for you, the range of shades is excellent and they’re all so blendable and easy to mix, you’ll be set to glow!
Without flash at the top and with at the bottom! I know there are quite a few newer kits out there now and the glow is currently sold out, but I’m sure it’s in the process of being restocked, since its a best seller and this has happened before. Also these are three of the kits where you can actually remove the pans, and the fourth is ‘sweets’. The newer kits aren’t removeable which is kinda sad, so I hope she makes all of these shades available individually because there are quite a few of these shades that I absolutely LOVE, and although I’m in no danger of running out of highlight anytime soon, it would be cool to be able to get just those ones!
Once again I want to apologise for my really long blogging break, this is the busiest time of my year cause training has finished and I’m about to be meeting a tonne of deadlines and being observed A LOT, plus I’m teaching in year 6…so SATs D:
I hope you’ve all been well, for my fellow bloggers I cannot wait to catchup on your blogs eventually, and I promise I will soon 😅
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